A blog for those who may have read the Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 books and, of course, for those who haven't but might be interested in SharePoint's secrets nonetheless.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

So I received a comment from someone on my "how to index PDFs" entry last month. Flattered, I went to take a looksee at what they wrote.

I was a little confused when the commentor mentioned that they had tried to make changes to the docicon.xml file and still couldn't get their search to work.

Hmmm, I don't remember touching the docicon.xml file when I enabled pdf indexing. I just downloaded and installed Adobe 8.x, added some registry entries, and did the necessary restarts to get sharepoint to index the files anew.

While trying to figure out why he thought docicon.xml had something to do with indexing filters, I realized that I forgot to do something important-- change the default pdf icon.

Ahh, that's what using the PDF ifilter from adobe has to do with the docicon.xml file-- to associate the correct icon for the pdf extension. I guess he thought the two processes were one in the same.

Yes, I know it's just a prettifyin' thing and not essential for search to work on PDFs, but what the heck, it's easy.

So if you don't want that pesky default blank paper icon to show up next to your PDF files in your libraries or search results, do the following:

Save the icon to the c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES folder. I renamed it "icpdf.gif" myself, just so it matches the format of all the other doc icon files used in the DOCICON.XML.

Open the DOCICON.XML file in notepad (the DOCICON.XML file is located in the c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML folder).

Once in the DOCICON.XML file, go to the "<ByExtension>" section (see figure above) and add the tag: "<Mapping Key="pdf" Value="icpdf.gif" OpenControl=""/>"(minus the quotes, they're just there to tell you what you are supposed to type-- again, blogger hates it when you add non- html tags)The tag means that the icon "icpdf.gif" (or whatever you named your pdf icon file) will be mapped to the .pdf extension. I do not have an open control (like using Word to edit a doc file) for pdfs, so I left it blank between the quotes.

Save the file, then drop to a command prompt and do an IISRESET. This should let sharepoint know there has been a change and repopulate the pages with new icons appropriately.

--- Important note: I could not get the pdf icon to work for the longest time. So pay heed-- the capitalization of the words "Mapping Key" OpenControl" and "Value" in the DOCICON.XML file is important. I did not capitalize the word "value", and no matter what I did, the icon would not work. So when you are working in the DOCICON.XML file, capitalizing the text in the tags is important.----

Once you have done an IISRESET on the WSS server (where, of course, all of this is taking place), you should be able to go into the library where pdf files are listed and see the correct icon next to them:

And when you do a search, the pdf files in the results should show up with the correct icon as well: So that's what the DOCICON.XML file is for, and how to add the correct little icon images to the file extensions you use in sharepoint. Thanks Ravie.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I have been working on some courseware for Microsoft, and in the process have come across something interesting.

Search queries the content database of a web application for data, right? And search is supposed to confine it's search to the site collection the user typed the query into, right?

But search does search the site collection path from the point where the query was made (be it at the top-level site, or at a subsite) downwards through the path.

So what if you were searching from the top-level site of the root site collection in a web application? Theoretically, all site collections from there are on its path and therefore available to be used for search results.

What makes that possible (or generally impossible- garnering the standard that searches are site collection-centric)? Most site collections have different user accounts in them. They are usually user boundaries, created to give different people access to different data. But if you have an account on the root site collection of a web application that is also a member of the other site collections on the path, then that person can, in fact, do a search at the top-level site of the root site collection, and get results that are located in the other site collections.

Search is generally limited by site collection due to security filtering. The other site collections on the path are omitted because the user doing the query doesn't have the right to see those results-- not because search doesn't go out to those additional site collections.

What stops search from accessing additional site collections is the caveat that the account must also be a member of the other site collection(s) in order for this to work. But if you have someone, say an IT staff member, who is a member of other site collections in that web application, then they can do this cross site collection search trick.

Try it. Break the site collection search boundary. So far, over and over, it has worked for me.

And if this is a security issue, giving the wrong people the right to search where you don't want them to-- well, you shouldn't have made them members of the other site collections...

Pages

Welcome to the Adventures of a Server Grrl-the WSS edition

This site was created as a location to dish about the Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (and Mastering SharePoint Foundation 2010) books, as a place to communicate with me directly, and allow me to communicate directly with you. There were so many things I wanted to say that didn't make it to print. So I felt I needed a place to tell you about them.

So please join me here as I essentially continue to write my book, covering more and more WSS 3.0 stuff as I learn them. From my desk to yours.

Gentle suggestions for the next edition, improvements, and questions welcome. : )

Twitter username: cacallahan

(please note that the original content of this blog is the copywritten material of CallahanTech, 2007-2012. All rights reserved.)

To buy on Amazon

Happenin' Things

In 2013:

I did two sessions about SharePoint 2013 for the PacIT Pro folks at TechDays San Francisco.

I'll be doing book signings and attending TechEd North America in New Orleans this year.

I'll be speaking at SPTechCon in Boston in August, doing a 3 hour pre-conference tutorial, and a breakout session

In 2012, I did speak at or otherwise work TechEd North America, TechEd Europe (in Amsterdam), SharePoint Conference 2012, and SEF 2012 in Stockholm Sweden.

In November, I will be visiting Sweden for the first time as a speaker for the SEF 2011 event (SharePoint and Exchange Forum 2011), November 14-15th. I will be doing two sessions: "SharePoint Design Fundamentals" and "Monitoring your SharePoint Foundation server at no extra cost." I will also probably be giving out a copy of my book at the event.

At the end of October, October 29th, 2011 to be exact, I am speaking at the SharePoint Saturday event in Cincinatti. My session is going to cover "Permissions, things I've learned the hard way." If you're in town, please stop on by.

I won an "Unsung Hero" award to attend and staff the SharePoint Conference in Anaheim, CA, October 3-6th, 2011. I will be working the Hands-On labs (just like I did for TechEd this year). If you are attending the event, please stop by and visit. Frankly, doing the labs hands-on have always been the best part of these events. Why watch someone do what you can actually do yourself? I'll be posting on twitter (as cacallahan) my specific hours if you would like to stop by and say hi!

For September 2011, I'll be the featured speaker at the SharePoint TechDay in San Francisco on the 23rd. It will be a whopping 6 hour session, covering all kinds of topics that a SharePoint adminstrator needs to know. A kind of "kitchen sink" session, this will focus on what an administrator who might have inherited a SharePoint implementation needs to know by the end of their first work day. Figure out what kind of implementation you have, your namespace, the web applications, their security and settings, the site collections, and sites. Along the way, see what kind of permissions are being used, suggestions on how to configure AAM, managed paths, and more. Take control of your SPF implementation, don't let it control you.

What is essentially a day long, custom course, this session will run from 10am-5pm on Friday, September 23rd at the Microsoft Office in San Francisco. It is not entirely free, but very inexpensive at $99 a person. To register go to http://techdays.org/2011/09/spwithca/.

In August 2011, I'll be doing a double-header in Columbus. On the 18th I'll be speaking at the BuckeyeSPUG (Columbus SharePoint User Group) meeting about Permissions.

Then that Saturday, August 20th, I'll be doing a session on Multi-Tenancy, what it is and why you might want to use it. So if you are in the area, please stop by.

On July 27th, 2011, I'll be in Cleveland Ohio speaking that the Cleveland SharePoint Users Group meeting. I will be covering how to create do-it-yourself dashboards and giving out a copy of my Mastering Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 book. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by.

For the week of May 16th-19th, 2011, I will be working the Hands-On labs, SharePoint and Office section at TechEd NA in Atlanta, Georgia. Hands-On labs are always my favorite part of these events- after I hear about things during a session, I can often try them, hands on, in the labs. Very useful for a servergrrl like me. Feel free to stop by.

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For the week of June 7th to the 11th I will be working as a Product Expert in the SharePoint track at TechEd 2010 in North America. This year the event will be held in New Orleans. If you are attending the event, feel free to stop by the booth, I'd be glad to meet you.

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December 16th, 2009, I'll be offering a free Windows Server 2008 R2 Firestarter Launch event at the Microsoft Offices in downtown Pittsburgh. This will be a deep dive, demonstration heavy, IT pro happening, focused on new features and capabilities of the most recent Server release.

I will be carrying this event alone, from finding the venue, to buying the refreshments, to doing all four hours of presentations. Right now I am trying to drum up more attendees, because I need a minimum of 25 people.

So if you're in the Pittsburgh area on the 16th, and would like a chance to see live demos (no high level overviews here) of new things in Server 2008R2-- like Active Directory Recycle bin (my fave), booting to VHD, Hyper-V (at the least because I'll be using it extensively all day), Power Management, Remote Server Manager (and the AD management center), powershell V2 (from an IT pro perspective of course), and much, much more-- then stop on by.

November 21st, 2009, I'll be carry a Introduction to SharePoint track at the Richmond, VA SharePoint Saturday event. (earlier in this space I'd posted that I'd be carrying most of a track, but an additional room was booked and now I am doing all four sessions)

My sessions will be back to back in four, one hour pieces. Starting with What is SharePoint, then A day in the life of a SharePoint User, then Make the most out of Lists and Libraries, and finally Make the most out of Web parts (a remake of my Frugal Admin, built-in web parts session, for those of you who have been looking to take that one but couldn't-- 'til now).

It will be held at the J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College

Parham Road Campus in Richmond Virginia. As of 11/18/09, there are still a few seats available if you want to sign up. Click the logo below to be taken to their site for more information.

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November 14th, 2009, I'll be presenting two sessions:

-- Frugal Admin: Create your own Dashboards (for those of you that missed it in Baltimore)

-- Migrating to 2010; The good, the bad, and the ugly.

At the SharePoint Saturday event in Cleveland Ohio. There will likely be a fun SharePint event afterwards, and rumor has it that attendees will get a cool SPS Cleveland pint glass as well...

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August 20th, 2009, I'm visiting the fine folks in Columbus Ohio at the Central Ohio SharePoint User Group meeting. I'll be doing the fourth part of the Frugal Admin series; "Exploiting the free online offerings for SharePoint". I'm primarily going to cover Fantastic 40 templates, Community Kit for SharePoint, Codeplex in general, solution accelerators, a few nifty blogs, some nifty SharePoint add-ons, and more. (really, whatever I can fit in the time they give me)

If you're in the area, come on by the Microsoft Office on Lyra Drive (8800 Lyra drive, suite 400 I believe) around 5:30pm.

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July 25th, 2009, I am going to be presenting a Frugal Admin series Dashboards session at the SharePoint Saturday event in Baltimore. This event is free to all attendees and will be chock full of SharePoint MVP goodness. I'll be there to give out a free copy or two of my book, sign a few, and just say hello to other SharePoint fans (and victims, lol). So if you can, stop on by. Oh, and did I mention free?

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SSWUG (the SQL Server Worldwide User Group) is rebroadcasting my sessions in a "Summer Refresher '09" event July 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. Stop by http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/summer09/uvc/ and sign up to see some old favorites, like "Avoid Disaster without spending a penny," "Pump up those list views," "Useful, effective templates, from Microsoft, for free," and the first three sessions of the Frugal Admin series: "How to get the most out of the built-in web parts," "How to make your own Dashboards," and "Create your own site templates."

(not a free event)

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I am not going to be presenting at TechEd this year, but I will be volunteering in the Windows Server area. Come visit if you'd like.

On April 23rd and 24th, I'll be doing some sessions for a SSWUG.org SharePoint VConference (check out their linked logo):

These sessions will be one hour apiece and are all part of the "Frugal Admin Series: How to get the most out of WSS for the least amount of cash":

-- How to get the most of the built-in web parts

-- Do it yourself dashboards

-- Make your own Custom Site Templates

Stop by, sign up, and check it out. I have a VIP code--SPVCCASP09. If you use it, it takes an additional $10 off the $125 (early bird) conference fee.

Hey, every little bit helps.

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SharePoint Saturday, DC, May 1st.

On May 1st, I'll be presenting one of the Frugal Admin series sessions, "Make your own custom site templates" at the DC SharePoint Saturday at the Reston, VA Microsoft Offices. The session will be an hour long. The event is completely free. So, if you're in the neighborhood, stop on by. I'll be glad to see ya.

Also happenin' at the SharePoint Saturday event is a charity food drive contest (http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/dc/pages/charity.aspx). So you won't just get some free training in SharePoint, you can do some good in the world as well. Check out the link and see if you can join in.

Oh, and BTW, the "prize" for the contest is an hour with the speaker of your choice. So if you've ever wanted to have a speaker's undivided attention for an hour, this is a good way to do it.

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I was just informed last night, 3/24/2009, that the event listed below has been completely cancelled. Yes, the entire 70 speaker, 110 session conference in a four star resort in Wisla, Poland has been simply cancelled.

I was to leave the US on Tues, 3/31. So as you can imagine, it came as quite a shock to be told less than a week before that all plans are off...

Crazy huh? Yes, these things can happen.

Click on the event icon below (and translate the site into your language, you can use Google Translate) to see exactly what happened. I cannot be guarantee how long the site will remain up, so don't dally if you want the inside scoop.

The first weekend in April (3/2 to 3/5), I was going to be speaking at TechFest 2009 in Wisla Poland (yay Poland!).

I was going to be doing four, hour and a half sessions from the Frugal Admin series:

-- How to get the most of the built-in web parts

-- Do it yourself dashboards

-- Make your own Custom Site Templates

-- Exploiting what's out there, how to get more free WSS stuff from the internet

Luckily I will be doing some lighter, shorter, recorded versions of the first three of them at the vconference later in the month (see below). So if you are interested in the content, that's where you can go-- cuz obviously they ain't happenin' in Poland now...

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SharePoint Conference 2009, Las Vegas, baybee!

I am not going to be presenting at this one, but it'll be chock full of SharePoint goodness. Not just an IT conference that has a SharePoint track, this one's all SharePoint all the time.

Have errata?

Just email servergrrl.wss at gmail.com if you've found a pesky editing error, printing blooper, or some other issue with the Mastering WSS 3.0 book. I gladly check that account regularly and would appreciate your feedback.

(thanks to Ricky and Dave Shellenberger for your comments, this widget's for you )